The LaMetroMole with LACMTA Comments

A critique of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority's management and operations: Los Angeles Transportation,

2011-07-31

Vae Viator17

Unfinished Business!♪

It is very strange that the fencing at Green Line Douglas-Rosecrans Station still looks so raw years and remain unpainted long after work on the station has been completed. Was the LACMTA in a hurry to fire people near the end of the project that the contractor was let off the hook? You may recall that your Mole has pointed out other “roughly finished” work at that station, which was ultimately completed. For an example of such “work”, please see. http://lametromole.blogspot.com/2008/07/false-advertising-i-have-decided-that.htmlPlease note that you will have to page-down seven (7) times inorder to see the example.

Let the work speak for itself

Let’s think for a moment about contracts. This Mole views the printed schedules which are sometimes available on buses as an implied contract to provide transportation at specific times. Now this Mole understands that there will be times when buses are late for one good reason or another. But, when a line(s) is/are consistently late, virtually never on-time, that is quite another matter.

It may not be and probably is not the fault of the drivers; it is the fault of those who make up the schedule, the “planners”. When and IF they make up a schedule that may be based upon the travel times experienced by the RTD in the 60s, it is unrealistic to the point of being fraudulent.

Su Topo knows from his many unpleasant experiences in attempting to make a trip using the LACMTA provided mass transit, that it can never be deterministic*. That is, it is virtually impossible to to say I will be at my destination at x o’clock. And when multiple Metro buses with connections are involved it is definitely impossible.

It is time for the LACMTA to be called into account for these failures to provide dependable transportation. They spend millions of dollars on art while spending little or not getting value for whatever they do spend on whatever passes for scheduling algorithms/systems at the Taj Mahal.

If you agree that a schedule is an implied contract then I submit that the LACMTA is in breach of contract hundreds of times each day.

Further, when “Rapid” buses speed by those who are not fortunate enough to able to get to a “Rapid” stop, then any bus, Rapid or regular, which passes them by with the “Discharge Only” headsign displayed or for any reason whatsoever, is indication the the LACMTA receives taxes paid by all while providing transportation for some.

In any event, we should demand that the LACMTA NOT spend our tax monies on pretty self promoting brochures and the people who make them (could this be breach of fiduciary?), but rather on professionals who can understand systems and the mathematics which enable them. Here is an example of a book that examines mass transportation solutions. WARNING: If you are associated with the LACMTA, DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LINK! At minimum, it is sure to give you a blinding headache. http://www.amazon.com/Optimal-Networks-Transportation-Lecture-Mathematics/dp/3540857982#_

Others, please, click on “Look Inside” and page through it, reading just the preface should be enough for most people. The point being is that with a detailed study of the LACMTA and its $3 BILLION annual budget, by an award-winning investigated team like some from the “Los Angeles Times”, is in order. Or perhaps the LA WEEKLY could mount such an effort; for quite a while that publication had done an extremely creditable job on the politics of transportation in Los Angeles. Put aside the legalities though and one can be 100% sure that the LACMTA can be charged with "Taxation Without Transportation".

Doubt that? Simply ask anyone who has to walk blocks to a bus stop so that the LACMTA can run "Rapid" buses which bypass them at a stop which is more convienent to them. The alternative for such passengers is to wait for an all-too-infrequent local bus, which then may only run over a portion of the route.

Apropos a mathematical/systems approach to some of the tasks being ignored or performed by the LACMTA, it would be worth considering what IBM has done with “Watson” on Jeopardy! The New York Times Magazine has an excellent article on Watson (Thompson). Watson is a product of IBM’s Semantic Analysis and Integration department. It drew upon The success of “Deep Blue” which, in 1997, “… beat grandmaster Gary Kasparov at chess … .” The system was required to deal with “nuanced allusions” in order to win at the game of “Jeopardy!”. This Mole found it interesting that “Watson is not connected to the Internet; ….” That means that all the information required to formulate answers in real time must be available from local storage.

This is not to say that Watson and its programming is the "fit for purpose" machine for the LACMTA's scheduling disaster.

Given the bus routing and scheduling task, supply the correctly designed and implemented system with appropriate data and it can and will generate bus schedules that work and can be adjusted for differences in traffic conditions and passenger demand as the day progresses. The result will be printed schedules that: (1) would be more accurate; (2) drivers are able to follow and meet the scheduled times; and (3) would not all require the same length of time to traverse a route.

[Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.]

The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.

The LA WEEKLY features a great piece (McDonald) on the Subway to the Sea, ‘… the official Metro name is the “Westside Subway” extension because the line has no serious prospect of reaching the ocean.'

It is refreshing to find serious transportation coverage which is rich in detail in the LA WEEKLY reported by such a great writer as Mr. McDonald.

It seems that (surprise!) political pressure wants to place the Century City stop 1000 feet south of the one originally planned for Santa Monica BL. Which change would require tunneling under Beverly Hills High School. A wave of déjà vu washes over your Mole as he thinks about the various other cost increases that were due to the LACMTA's “dig then plan” approach. This time it seems that the plan is being changed in order to ensure delays and cost overruns.

Just one more quote, then I suggest that you read the article in full: “”The price tag quoted by Metro has already quietly jumped from $4.8 billion to $5.3 billion before a shovel of earth has been turned” while “… the Westside Subway extension’s cost is pegged by some analysts a $6 billion to $9 billion.”

The Daily Breeze tell us (Neighbor) why the light rail has those, to me, weak yellow barriers between cars. It is because a blind man, thinking that had found the doorway, fell between the cars and died in 2009.

A very sad incident and one which could have been avoided, IF we weren’t cursed with such provincial staff at the LACMTA. For years, ALL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS in Japan have used a series of large raised dots that lead the blind right to the doorways of trains, subways and buses. The operators and drivers of said vehicles stop exactly on the mark! But as they say: “Who knew?”

The PressTelegram features (Grobaty) an interview with the head of Long Beach Transit, an organization about which su Topo has only very positive comments. Larry Jackson sounds like a regular person, he has been president and general manager of Long beach Transit since 1980. Apparently he never drove a bus, not that that should be a factor. LACMTA selection board are you listening?

News that isn’t (Metro Day): Big print, “Metro Day Pass To Be Lowed To $5, little print, “Metro is making plans to lower the price of a Day Pass from $6 to $5.”

Will this happen before the access control system is operational and a significant portion of the ridership has TAP or after?

A short piece in the Times reports (Forgione) that the FlyAway is raising fares [AGAIN?]. The telling portion of the article is that “Commissioners earlier had recommended pulling the plug on the Westside bus service because it had lost an estimated $8.5 million since it began in June 2007 [Emphasis added – Mole]. UCLA students argued that they need the service even though ridership has remained low. The FlyAway picks up and drops off passengers outside UCLA Parking Structure 32 at Kinross Avenue, a block west of Gayley Avenue.”

What this means to those who are not cognitively challenged is that the LACMTA should get up off their big fat uh, chairs and institute a limited stop service over part of the old 439 Line route; with stops at WLATC, CCTC and the LAXCBC with a continuation to the Green Line Aviation Station. Pass holders could use their passes and tourists could pay $5 with luggage and $3 without luggage. It could make money. And your Mole could stop saying, about Flyaway anyway, “Taxation without transportation!”

What is LAWA (Los Angeles World Airports) doing in the Flayaway [sic] bus business anyway? We have the LACMTA we don’t need any more amateurs!

The Times produced a “feel good” story (Lelyveld) about a Northern California family having an urban transportation adventure. I have to stop typing for a minute as a wave of nausea swept over me. I am OK now, it is just when these people, who have never traveled without a car, get giddy when they travel in the bigish city, I react physically. ‘"We're the adventure family," [a child] announces proudly as they strike out a little after 9 a.m. for the La Brea tar pits.’If they want to have a bus adventure they should try the 40 Line from downtown to say, the WalMart at 4101 Crenshaw; then do a little shopping there.

Then we find the Los Angeles Times coverage (Simon) of Mayor Villaraigosa’s trip to DC to (surprise!!) ask for money so that, and this is su Topo’s supposition here, they can implement the —what is it called?– the 30/60 plan??

This would be hilarious if it were not so sad. No one knows what Los Angeles will look like after the current economic problems are resolved. I know this will send LACMTA staff shrieking out of the room but, building fixed rail transportation systems without knowing what the sources and sinks of the network will be is, well, in a word, insanity.

What they should be building is the subway-to-the sea. However, when transportation systems are “designed” by politicians who are often long out of office after the deed is done, the result is what we call in technical terms, a mess. Wilshire BL is going to stay where it is, until the “Big One” anyway and it is a source of passengers all along its length. Tourists and natives as well all want to go to Santa Monica, at least once-in-a-while, so there you are.

Based upon the LA Reader piece (Vide Supra) I have strong doubts that without factoring out the politics and politicians from these “schemes”, your great-great grandchildren may not ride on any new subways. Arguments about the location of stations before building, cost overruns, poor project management, safety concerns and legal troubles galore during and after building mean that serious transportation systems CANNOT be designed and built by rank amateurs.

There it is. Step one: take the politicians out of the picture replacing them with professionals; Step Two: Let the professionals go to work; Step Three: Get out of and stay out of the way!

Of course, the project must be staffed with sharp penciled financial staff who can keep to a budget and hard-nosed project managers who can hold the contractors’ feet to the fire, but with real professionals in charge we will see real progress in transportation which should be BOTH mass and rapid.

The Time’s Hector Tobar does an nice job in his profile (Tobar) of Transit activist Damien Goodmon. Mr. Goodman does not have an easy job, but seems to be devoting the required effort to it.

‘On Monday, Goodmon told his small but influential audience that the only way to reach their goal was to stop playing nice.

"Black power does not come from putting a dollar in a can," he said. He gave an estimate of what a good legal team might cost: a minimum of $15,000. The figure floated around the room — no one, it seemed, thought it was beyond their ability.’

But I am afraid that Mr. Goodmon is way too low in his estimate of the legal costs required to take on the inertia freighted LACMTA.

Tobar nails it: “I'm completely with the activists on their fight for a Leimert Park station — … At the same time, I'm not naive enough to believe that the MTA board is a body of disinterested civic leaders who are going to look at the feasibility studies and the available money, and make an impartial and disinterested decision.”

IBM will far exceed TIANHE-1A, by a factor of eight, when it releases its 20 petaflop Sequoia next year.

New Yorker looks to the future of computing when it presents an eminently readable article (Glachen) about quantum computing. The author predicts that “groups … may soon build machines that will make today’s computers look like pocket calculators.” The subject of the writer’s interview, a British Citizen who is affiliated with Oxford University, “David Deutsch believes that quantum computers will give evidence for the existence of parallel universes.”

You can replace quantum/quanta with particle/particles. The Large Hadron Collider which straddles the Swiss and French borders on the outskirts of Geneva, deals in particle physics.

“Quantum mechanics describes the natural history of matter and energy making their way through space and time.”

‘Quantum mechanics states that particles can be in two places at once, a quality called superposition; that two particles can be related, or “entangled,” such that they instantly coördinate their properties, regardless of their position in space and time; and that when we look at particles we unavoidably alter them.’

Exactly how quantum computers operate is neither easy to understand nor easy to explain, but this article gives readers a good chance of obtaining a high level understanding of a significant portion of this material.

This is a great article! Presently, it is only available in print, likely from your library or on a fee basis online. So, if you are interested in this sort of think you will have to track down a copy (Vide infra, Works Cited.)

¿Musica? How about some Reggaeton? Here is “El Bombon Asesino” by Ninel Conde, who was featured in Los Angeles Hoy on Viernes 1 de Julio 2011:página 33, ¡Una Belleza!

“Fifty years later, SETI scientists following in Drake’s footsteps can do in seconds what took Drake 200 hours, thanks to continual boosts in instrumental and computing power. At this rate, Drake and his SETI Institute colleague Seth Shostak estimate that in 20 or 30 years scientists will have scanned enough stars to have a decent chance of detecting an alien signal—if intelligent aliens are indeed out there.” Sourced from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=seti-contact-the-day-after-poll

The Mole Rides Again, and has a chance to smile and feel connected to a pleasant group. He hopes that you have such occasions too!

(All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)

Newtons First Law♪

The law of inertia, a body at rest … is aptly illustrated by this man who is resting at the LAXCBC. A nice sight for the many foreign tourists who pass through here. And yet another illustration of the total lack of security patrols at the LAXCBC,

2011-07-01: It is early evening and I ride a 117 Line bus on Century BL. Quite a few hotel workers, mostly housekeepers, are onboard. They laugh, talk quietly and seem cheerful after a hard day’s work. Su Topo smiles at being a part of this pleasant ambiance.

2011-07-05 @ 8:41 Aboard a CCMBL #6 bus: A woman across the aisle reads a Nursing magazine; the article is entitled “Wounds”. Obviously she is a professional. Only the hum of the air conditioner is heard, this is the ideal bus for a reader, but your Mole has yet to open his book.

2011-07-05 @ 15:53: A 232 Line bus pulls into the LAXCBC showing a “Discharge Only” headsign. These 232s seem never to be on schedule. And the LACMTA seems unable to develop schedules that anyone can follow and remain on time.

2011-07-06 @ afternoon: Aboard a 40 Line bus, number 5197 driven by number 29983. The driver is carrying on a lengthy conversation with a woman seated directly behind her. There is no doubt that she is distracted. The passenger gets up and stands close to the driver so that they can whisper. What next?

2011-07-13 @ 10:15: Aboard a CCMBL #6, a young woman with the voice of a diamond toothed saw cutting Alloy 1090 is carrying on a loud cell conversation which has lasted 30 minutes so far. Her speech is laced with “like” at a ratio of about 1:3. Her use misuse of the word is exceed only by that of a USC graduate, whose interview for a sales job I was forced to overhear. These two together would be impossible to imagine. Can’t anyone construct a simple sentence anymore?

2011-07-15 @ 7:30 LAXCBC: An elderly woman, apparently uninformed about the fatal consequences of smoking, lights he second cigarette since the Mole got here fifteen minutes ago. She smokes mechanically taking puff after puff, coughing periodically. Personally, I wish that the LACMTA would not allow smoking at these places where one is trapped and subject to second hand smoke until one’s bus arrives.

The other day there was even a cigar smoker fouling the air, oh well.

2011-07-25: I wait at a bus stop on Sepulveda BL which is occupied by one other person. The homeless man and his luggage are spread over the only four seats. He rolls a cigarette while carrying on an animated conversation with himself. He is unkempt and has a dirty large green tote and a black duffel bag which has seen better days. He completes the cigarette rolling procedure and starts to pack his equipment using a system known only to him before leaving.

My 42 Line bus shows up about 13 minutes (24%) late.

Dedicated to the Dulcinea of my dreams

'If a multitude of reflections used to harass Don Quixote before he had been overthrown, a great many more harassed him since his fall. He was under the shade of a tree, as has been said, and there, like flies on honey, thoughts came crowding upon him and stinging him. Some of them turned upon the disenchantment of Dulcinea, others upon the life he was about to lead in his enforced retirement. Sancho came up and spoke in high praise of the generous disposition of the lacquey Tosilos.

"Is it possible, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that thou dost still think that he yonder is a real lacquey? Apparently it has escaped thy memory that thou hast seen Dulcinea turned and transformed into a peasant wench, and the Knight of the Mirrors into the bachelor Carrasco; all the work of the enchanters that persecute me. But tell me now, didst thou ask this Tosilos, as thou callest him, what has become of Altisidora, did she weep over my absence, or has she already consigned to oblivion the love thoughts that used to afflict her when I was present?"

"The thoughts that I had," said Sancho, "were not such as to leave time for asking fool's questions. Body o' me, senor! is your worship in a condition now to inquire into other people's thoughts, above all love thoughts?"

"Look ye, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "there is a great difference between what is done out of love and what is done out of gratitude. A knight may very possibly be proof against love; but it is impossible, strictly speaking, for him to be ungrateful. Altisidora, to all appearance, loved me truly; she gave me the three kerchiefs thou knowest of; she wept at my departure, she cursed me, she abused me, casting shame to the winds she bewailed herself in public; all signs that she adored me; for the wrath of lovers always ends in curses. I had no hopes to give her, nor treasures to offer her, for mine are given to Dulcinea, and the treasures of knights-errant are like those of the fairies,' illusory and deceptive; all I can give her is the place in my memory I keep for her, without prejudice, however, to that which I hold devoted to Dulcinea, whom thou art wronging by thy remissness in whipping thyself and scourging that flesh--would that I saw it eaten by wolves--which would rather keep itself for the worms than for the relief of that poor lady."’

I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: 8262;Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.

I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers:29983 (i); None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;Codes: (i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone call(s). Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii) Self-distracted. Codes (ii*) and (iii) will ALWAYS be explained in the posting.

I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers: 5206+L; 5193+L;~UR or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy) sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the original form of defacement. * Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.

ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tailsigns disagree: XXXX HHH/TTT;Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.

ID numbers of Buses without Braille signs: XXXX;METRO drivers Basic Technical Skills ReportThe format is Driver number F[{Y/-n/+n} C[{Y/N}]. Meaning of F if Y the driver stopped with the Bus stop “flag pole” somewhere between the bus front door frame. A negative number, e.g., -3 is the approximate distance in metres (think yards dear readers) between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped short of the flag. A positive number, e.g., +3 (metres) is the approximate distance between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped past the flag. The value for C[{Y/N}], “Y” tells us that the driver stopped within an easy step from the curb to the bus, “N” means it was NOT an easy step from the curb to the bus. It is this Mole's belief that an average experienced good driver should be able to control his bus so as to position in near the curb and with the flag pole slightly to the front of the bus. 70623* F[-5] C[Y]; 70509* F[+2] C[Y]; 23582 F[+4] C[Y]; 75592 F[+6], C[Y]; 20595 F[Y] C[N]; N.B. distances are in metres, think yards.nnnnn* = Contract Driver

I.D. numbers of drivers who are almost guaranteed to give you a Rough and Jerky (R & J) ride. 70509;I.D. numbers of drivers who will give you a potentially life-threatening ride.XXXXX(-); XXXXX(-); Codes: S = not wearing seat belts; J = bad judgment (unsafe driving practices).

La Taupe's Abréviations ADADO = Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is installed on many buses and operates on extremely few. Another “money down the toilet” LACMTA investment. La Taupe that this is intended for the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head signs”.ASAS = Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System) driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B. Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board stops may be too close to identify stops separately. This is known as a granularity problem. Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops which you have already passed. I find that this will NOT keep some drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time. They don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue BusCC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)CCTC = Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known as FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center (Sepulveda & Slauson)FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.50)LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.Rapid Transit = does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).R & J = Rough and Jerky [ride]. TT = Torrance Transit.T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers,T3 = the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)

Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologiaYour Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text input. Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc. I wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t. Therefore, I apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of which I do not approve. Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is 24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text, although it still seems to be there. In fairness to them, things seem better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their “features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them. Communicating these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun than that. By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I am hoping that one of their developers will some day read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine. Until then, lo siento.

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Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest StatementThis is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any time during the past year have been, nor it my current intention to ever be:1) A participant, directly or indirectly, in any arrangement, agreement, investment, or other activity with any vendor, supplier, or other party doing business with any of the entities about which I have written, which has resulted or could result in personal benefit to me.2) A recipient, directly or indirectly, of any salary payments or loans or gifts of any kind or any free service or discounts or other fees from or on behalf of any person or organization engaged in any transaction with any of the entities about which I have written. Any exceptions to 1 or 2 above are stated below with a full description of the transactions and of the interest, whether direct or indirect, which I have (or have had during the past year) in the persons or organizations having transactions with any of the entities about which I have written.There are no exceptions.Date: 2009-06-24 S/LametroMole